Berlin Summer Events 2018

Hello, it me again! Every summer, this blog wakes up from it’s long deserved winter slumber to bring you only the finest content about Berlin and, now that I’m turning much older, Brandenburg too.

One of the great things about Berlin is how much it changes from winter to summer. I’ve grown to love every phase of it, even the bad and rainy ones. At time of writing this, it’s a lovely 25°C and we’re riding an exceptional spring-summer heatwave. Let’s hope it stays on like this for the rest of 2018, too.

Be advised that this list is by no means complete and will be updated as the summer goes on. Speaking of: I always accept recommendations and nudges via email (please don’t DM me on my Instagram or message me on Facebook, that’s just rude), but I’ll have you know that if you’re a person that enjoy the Berlin Beer Festival, any craft beer occasion or fake street food markets, you should probably save your energy.

Art & Culture Events

10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art

Venice is cool, but Berlin is cooler: the 10th Berlin Biennale, titled We Don’t Need Another Hero (indeed a reference to Tina Turner), is one of the most important art events of the year. I’ve only ever been to the Biennale opening parties, but plenty of performances, openings and showings will be a great opportunity for visitors and residents to learn something about the local art scene.

The locations of the exhibitions vary from year to year, so there’s always something (and somewhere) new to discover.

Tropez Europool

Tropez, the exciting art-and-culture hotspot at the public Humboldthain summer pool, is re-opening for another season of great (!) pommes, music, talks, lectures and delicious Frozé! The program is vast and diverse, so I recommend you take a peek. For a specific nudge, check out the Europool dates, a program hosted by my women idols of the political and queer and progressive party series Creamcake.

Kolonnaden Bar

Every year, the Staatliche Museen of Berlin meet under the colonnades in Mitte to discuss critically the state of the museum. In various lectures, talks and discussions, the program is accompanied by a different DJ every night of the schedule and, of course, by a beautiful bar in one of Berlins most iconic architectural locations.

(This is an especially valuable event as the colonnades provide shelter from the rain and make for a great pitstop on your way to somewhere else; word of warning: the program seems to be in German exclusively!)

Music Events

Her Damit Festival

If you can look past the bland and intolerably, irritatingly boring name, Her Damit festival may actually be the best thing Berlin has to offer for music fans – judging by the incredible Techno line up and the prospect of raving in a WWII bunker complex, only 50km outside of Berlin. Is Her Damit the Coachella Festival that Berghainis have been waiting for? ItaloJohnson, Kobosil, DJ Boring, I HATE MODELS (!!!), Roman Flügel, and this is just to mention some of the premium acts announced (if they can add Vril I’ll be forever grateful)

That being said: Her Damit was supposed to take place between 8 and 10 June 2018, but will be postponed due to high risk of wildfire in Brandenburg – which may or may not give you enough time to purchase a ticket (after it’s already been sold out for some time). But it also means that some of the artists may not make this transition. Good luck anyway!

Sacred Ground Festival

Technically, Sacred Ground isn’t even in Berlin, but everyone knows that the Uckermark – a beautiful region in surrounding Brandenburg state – is the chosen exile of all the cool Berliners. And where do cool Berliners go when they want to share intimate musical experiences (from singer/songwriter to deep techno)? To lovely Sacred Ground Festival, of course.

This year’s line up isn’t complete yet, but for now expect Roman Flügel, Gerd Janson, RY X and more.

O MATO Festival

Another event for which I can only rate without having participated in it, but I’m honestly intrigued: O MATO (can’t help but call it TOMATO) is an eco-aware, culturally inclined, globally acting Brazilian/German collective that usually celebrates life on boat parties in the Brazilian jungle (or that’s how much I could gather from their website). For the Berlin edition, they’ve booked an island on Wannsee called Lindwerder – not exactly tropical rainforest style, but good enough for a festival.

The program of O MATO Berlin includes cinema, food and sports, two dance floors (but no word of any line up) and costs only 11 Euro per person (the event in Brazil is around 550€ for internationals, in case you were wondering), so it’s worth checking out on a trip further out.

Fête De La Musique

Every year, the calendarian beginning of summer is celebrated with an extraordinary street music festival. Local music and performance artists play publicly for free, in restaurants, sidewalks and parks. You would do well to take a walk through Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Prenzlauer Berg or Mitte, where most people unite.

The whole program can be found on the official website, and filtered by neighborhoods.

Parades

Motzstraßenfest

The “Lesbian and Gay” Street Festival of Schöneberg is really a classic and – in my humble opinion – much more inclusive and diverse than the Christopher Street Day parade. The festivities are held around Nollendorfplatz and Motzstraße in Schöneberg, the (formerly?) queer and gay volcano of Berlin. Expect music, people in fetish attires, open doors for clubs, bars and sex-shops, as well as loads of street food and campy music.

World Cup 2018 Public Viewing

What can I say, the FIFA world cup is a staple of Berlins summer scene, so I didn’t want to miss out on it here. Although the hype was much grander when Germany was hosting the cup, the streets will likely be packed again with football fanatics. Every reputable Späti, café, restaurant and local brand will provide something to go with the football season, and while the sport itself isn’t for everyone, I promise the vibe will be just right for every German goal.

You can simply walk down the streets of your neighborhood and become part of the football gang.

Food

Vegan Summer Festival

I’ve reverted from being a casual vegan to being a full-fledged meat-eater again, I must admit. But in those couple of weeks I learned a lot about myself, about food and about healthy habits in general, so I can say I took something from it (especially a lot of respect for vegans who pull through every day and got their priorities right). That’s why I want to support the Vegan Summer Festival, which takes places on Alexanderplatz – a sweet location to enlighten the hordes of basic bitches who flock to Primark – and offers a delightful variety of Berlin’s best vegan food.